If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

AMD Radeon HD 4250 880G On Linux

08-06-2010, 10:40 AM

Phoronix: AMD Radeon HD 4250 880G On Linux

Back in May we looked at the AMD Radeon HD 4290 integrated graphics Linux performance of the 890GX motherboard chipset found on the MSI 890GXM-G65 and many other motherboards. This ATI Radeon 4290 (890GX) wasn't the most compelling integrated graphics processor we found with its OpenGL performance using the proprietary Catalyst driver being significantly lower than even the cheapest PCI Express graphics cards. X-Video Bitstream Acceleration, the method whereby AMD exposes their UVD2 engine capabilities on Linux, was also rather useless (and to this day still is the case) that makes this an ineffective Linux Home Theater PC too. Since the launch of the 890GX chipset, AMD rolled out the 880G chipset as a less-expensive solution for motherboard vendors and offers a stripped-down graphics processor of what is found in the 890GX and is branded as the ATI Radeon HD 4250. Today we have a few benchmarks of the Radeon HD 4250 (880G) under Linux for your viewing pleasure.

The plus side going to ATI hardware is the open-source support, for which the 880G/890GX chipsets there is kernel mode-setting, the classic Mesa DRI driver, and an emerging Gallium3D driver, but with this IGP hardware not being the fastest with the performance-optimized Catalyst driver, the open-source performance is sadly worse.

It would be nice to see a comparison of Catalyst to the OSS stack anyway, to see where we are and how far we still have to go.

Comment

It would be nice to see a comparison of Catalyst to the OSS stack anyway, to see where we are and how far we still have to go.

Yes, that could be usefull, too.

I don't get it why HD4290 is even worse than HD4250. I thought 4290 is the most powerfull AMD IGP chipset.
And this resolution comparision look strange that at 1024x768 and 1280x1024 resolutions you've get less FPS than on 1680x1050 and higher.

Comment

IMO the strange performance in 1024x768 and 1280x1024 resolutions is a bug in the drivers. Was everything tested on the same stack (including Catalyst version)? Anyway, HD4290 should be faster than HD4250...

Comment

There's no mention in the article about sideport memory.
A quick research show that both motherboards have 128 Mb of 1333 Mhz DDR3 sideport memory. Maybe Asrock is timing them more aggressively (usually they do this to appear in the first positions of the reviews).

Intel's GMA offerings starting from their low-end, while pricier than AMD's, enjoy solid OSS support so AMD's price advantage is lost before the race even began. That's in the high volume segment. At the other end the OSS-hostile Nvidia's proprietary drivers beat AMD/ATI's own preferred proprietary support as well...

Sadly I see no signs of Fusion gaining proper (parity) Linux/X.org support so what could be a game changer whimpers into a relative non-event. I can't even remember the last time I saw an AMD-based box or notebook preloaded with Linux by an OEM or a local shop. I hope I'm wrong as I'd really like welcome AMD back to my personal and recommended hardware list.

Comment

Other than video decode acceleration, what features do you think are missing from the proprietary drivers ? OEM preloads are done with fglrx, not the open drivers. The open source drivers are not supposed to replace fglrx, they are supposed to make it easy for distros to offer a great experience when installing on already-purchased hardware.

Re: power management and the open drivers, last time I checked there were no plans to stop work on power management - quite the opposite in fact. Did you hear something different ? I get the feeling you think that *we* are supposed to doing all of the open source driver development; that was not the plan originally and is not the plan today. We provide programming information, help with initial support, and provide direct developer support to the community but we are emphatically *not* writing the open source drivers ourselves.

Also note that Q is not actually the official keeper of the AMD product release calendar, despite appearances